For this month, I read The beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider. The book is about a teenager who has everything going for him. The perfect girlfriend, the all-star of his tennis team, and he even had their chance to become homecoming king. It all took a turn when one party led to his breakup and his car crash. From there he lost everything and no longer was able to play tennis. He stopped hanging out with his friends and completely became depressed for a whole summer. It only took one girl to change that.

I really enjoyed this book and the emotions were so relatable. The main character has so many things going wrong for him, and it was interesting to see his doubtful emotions turn into positive emotions. The lesson of the book was meaningful and it was intriguing to read and carefully analyze his change over time.

My favorite character of the book was Ezra. Ezra went through so much at his age. I can understand why he stopped hanging out with his popular friends and why he started running away from tennis. It was hard for Ezra to try to hang out with those friends when it just reminds him of his old self with his memory of what the car crash did to his leg. The one memorable thing he did do, was that he got up and put his life back together after everything. He made better friends and focused on things that weren’t just about popularity. He was persistent and determined to try again and make a better life. After fighting with his ex-girlfriend, she explains to him that she wasn’t the one who flipped his life. Page 329, “you keep wanting to give me credit because you finally decided you weren’t content with squeezing yourself into the narrow corridor of everyone’s expectations, but you made that decision before we’d even met…”

My favorite quote from the book is page 335, “Oscar Wilde once said that to live is the rarest thing in the world, because most people just exist, and that’s all. I don’t know if he’s right, but I do know that I spent a long time existing, and now, I intend to live.” This is one of my favorites because it has a deep meaning to it. When Ezra said this, it showed that he finally understood how you should live. He realized to spend your time with the people you love and the people that matter most. He realized he needed to focus more on himself and not just his appearance. People spend their lives doing things that don’t make them happy or do things that they feel are just apart of life. Many people don’t realize that life is too short, it’s important to live your life to the fullest, becuase you’ll never know when it’s going to end. Everyone gets a tragedy at some point, but it’s important to be able to move on and focus on the bigger picture of life.

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One quote from Dumbledore that has a lot of meaning to me is, “happiness can be found even in the darkest times, when one only remembers to turn on the light.”

How I interpret the quote is that even when you are at your lowest, someone will always be there to pick you up. I can relate to this quote because I share a similar experience. A few years ago things went wrong and bad things started to pile up. I realized now that everyone else had their own problems and it was hard for people to come together. No one was there for each other. My family and I were split apart and it felt too late to pick up the pieces. As shown in the quote, it felt there was no happiness in that dark time. There was no light, not one spot of gleaming light, and not one feeling of happiness. Nobody remembered to turn on the light and no one remembered that happiness was the key. I realize now that everyone can find happiness, it really only takes one person to bring it to you. When my family went through a dark time, there was only one person who helped us. That special person really brought a new perspective of life.

Overall, the reason why DumbleDore’s quote means so much is because it’ relatable and the wording is an explanation of itself. DumbleDore’s quote wasn’t just some quote, it was a meaningful piece that can be shared and related to others. People can relate to this quote because it happens to everybody and everybody always has that one person who didn’t forget to turn on the light.

Somebody I really admire is Andy Ruiz. Andy Ruiz is a heavyweight champion boxer. I greatly admire Andy becuase of his courage, perseverance, and his steadiness.

One thing I admire about Andy was in 2020. Ruiz was going to box against a man named Anthony Joshua. Joshua was a tall, big, and strong guy. He was humongous next to Andy Ruiz. This didn’t stop Andy. He stepped into that boxing ring with courage and confidence. Not only did he win that fight, he showed everyone that no matter the size of the other person, as long as you are courageous enough, you can win.

Another thing I admire about Andy Ruiz is his steady-like character. During one of his biggest boxing matches yet, one where he had to face someone that could totally demolish him, and one where all the pressure was on him to earn the heavyweight champion of the world belt, Andy Ruiz was very calm. In the ring, Ruiz didn’t pay attention to how loud the crowd was cheering against him and how much muscular his opponent was. He stayed calm and was steady throughout the match. When his opponent was punching him, he didn’t freak out and he carefully studied the opponent. His steadiness was what won the match and changed his life. This steady-like character showed how much you accomplish if you just take a breath, and take a moment to understand how to come out on top.

Lastly, I really admire Andy Ruiz’s perseverance. Before boxing one of the biggest matches in his life, he prepared like crazy. He pushed himself to the limit and he made sure his work ethic was better than his opponent. Although there training was tough, he was determined to win the match. He persevered through all the challenges and difficulties that were thrown at him during training. He did this because he wanted it more than Anthony Joshua. He wanted to win the belt and with his persevered mindset, he was unstoppable.

Overall, Andy Ruiz has three admirable traits; he’s courageous, he’s calm and steady, and he is persevered. When Andy Ruiz showed these traits to the world, it showed everyone that as long as you have a confident mind and are persistent in getting what you want, you’ll eventually reach your goal.

My word of intention for 2024 is self-assurance.

For this upcoming year, I want to focus on becoming self-assured. One thing I really want to be self-assured about, is soccer. I’ve noticed that the real reason why I quit soccer years ago was because I wasn’t confident in myself. I really want to avoid that so it doesn’t happen again. I understand now that the only way I’ll get better, is if I become self-assured. I’ve seen the difference of how I play soccer boldly and when I don’t. If I really want to start making it to the next levels, I need to start with working on my self assurance.

Another thing I want to be self-assured about this year is my academics. I overthink many things when it comes to school and I usually catch myself doubting my abilities in my studies. Sometimes I am unsure about how I’ll do on a project or assessment. I want to make sure that I’m confident in my work and not feel as if my academics aren’t good enough.

Lastly, I want to be self-assured about my own presence. I don’t want to feel uncomfortable when I walk or talk. I want to focus on being the best possible confident person I can be. I want to self assure myself that I’m worthy of who I am and how God made me. I want to feel confident about my abilities and not feel so embarrassed about what I can’t do.

For 2024, my word of intention is self-assurance. I think that if I really focus on becoming self-assured on soccer, school, and myself, this year could be a huge change for me.

In December, I read the book Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen. Flipped is about a girl named Julie who is overly obsessed with her neighbor, Bryce. She is mesmerized by his blue eyes and dark hair. Although, Bryce doesn’t exactly feel the same way. All his life, Bryce complains about how he hates the attention from Julie. This doesn’t stop Julie and she chases him all until the eighth grade, when things flip. Suddenly Julie changes and so does Bryce. All of a sudden, their thoughts about one another have been totally mixed up and their lives begin to become messy.

I really enjoyed this book. The cliffhanger at the end is very intriguing and makes you want to read more. I also loved reading the true reality of how someone can change. This novel was sweet and brought lots of emotions into the book. It was very interesting to notice the change overtime between all the characters. The author added some really great description of the challenges Julie and Bryce faced, it really makes the reader want to jump in there and help their love story out.

After reading Flipped, my favorite character was Bryce’s grandfather, Chet. Chet really helped out the story line and I believe he’s the reason the story ended a certain way. He helped Julie with her garden and genuinely talked to her. He listened to very detail she said and was completely understanding. Although he didn’t have a great relationship with Bryce, he shared some important insights that Bryce needed to hear. He told Bryce about how he needs to look at Julie from a different perspective and to understand the real extraordinary side of Juliana Baker. With his gentle, calm voice, I think he’s the one that made everything fall into place. Chet points out an interesting detail about Julie. “A girl like that doesn’t live next door to everyone, you know.” (Page 28).

My favorite quote from the book is, “How could she sit there and look so … beautiful?”(Page 180). When Bryce Loski said this, it was truly meaningful. This quote changed everything. It showed how someone can change drastically. He was annoyed with Julie at first, but then suddenly understood how beautiful she is, inside and out. I think this can be related to real life events, because some people just judge someone before actually taking a deep understanding of who they really are. Maybe Julie had a messed up yard, had no friends, and a special uncle, but that wasn’t just who Julie was. She was truly golden and it only took one person to really see it.